For what it's worth, I sing a lot of my own songs. Better yet, most of the songs I've ever written will never be heard by anybody, because by my standards they were not good enough. (My navel period, I guess.) But I personally have never felt the need to limit myself with regard to what kind of songs I do, what they're about, or how much I deviate from orthodoxy. In fact one of my favorite things to do musically is to take a traditional song and change it; new music, new words, new rythm; and I do this with great reverence for the original. If somebody doesn't want to listen to me because of this, there's lots of other places to go. But it's a shame to miss out on the great richness of the variety of music in the world, now more available than ever before, because of some dearly held preferences made into laws. If I listen to more kinds of music than the next guy, I have no doubt that I am richer than him because of it.

Chet W.